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Should the public help pay for renovations to Dolphins stadium?

When the Super Bowl was young, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, having the game regularly in Miami was a given: Nice weather, big stadium, beaches.

The Dolphins want public funds to help pay for renovations to Sun Life Stadium. (File photo)

These days, however, there’s a sort of stadium arms race to hold the nation’s most popular sports event.

The Dallas Cowboys play in a $1 billion palace that hosted the game last year. The Arizona Cardinals’ stadium outside Phoenix, complete with climate control, will host the 2015 game. Even the weather isn’t the same draw. The 2014 game will be played in the New Jersey stadium that is home to the Giants and Jets.

So even though Dolphins stadium has hosted the game five times since the stadium opened in 1987, the National Football League is demanding a nicer facility. Dolphins owner Steve Ross and Miami-Dade officials want to land the 50th Super Bowl in 2016.

The NFL will decide in May. Mr. Ross and the Miami-Dade folks believe that they can get the game if Sun Life Stadium gets about $400 million worth of renovations. Mr. Ross says he will pay for much of it. Nice of him, since the expense benefits his team. But he wants the state to chip in some, and a Miami-Dade legislator has filed a bill that would allow the use of tourist taxes for stadium upgrades.

The timing is tight, because the session ends in early May, and the Dolphins want to show the NFL that commitment. Mr. Ross believes the work could be done in time for the 2015-16 season, and thus the 2016 Super Bowl.

Tourism groups argue that the Super Bowl brings in needed money and that the stadium also hosts the University of Miami and the Orange Bowl. (The old Orange Bowl in downtown Miami hosted five Super Bowls.)

Others might point to the fleecing the Miami Marlins owners gave the public after receiving roughly $500 million to build their stadium – on the site of the old Orange Bowl – and wonder why the public should contribute to something that is used so rarely.

What do you think? Should the public pay for renovations to Dolphins stadium? Take our poll. Or, since our “comments” function has been restored, you can leave a comment.